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Peg-Man is a 3500-word short story by Rudy Rucker, about a video game player, who gets a surprise after doing well on one of his games. The story was first published in the June, 1982 issue of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

Rhett is a man who works in an arcade, spending much of his spare time playing video games, especially one called Peg-Man. He tells his wife, Polly, that he finished the twentieth page (chapter) of the game, and a video image of the President of the United States appeared, saying that his strategies would help design a better anti-anti missile system, and he would soon be rewarded with $1000 from the government. His wife is skeptical, and when an old math teacher of hers, Professor Horvath, shows up, she tells him the story. He is skeptical too, but he agrees to show up on a Saturday morning to see Rhett duplicate the feat.

That Saturday, Rhett again makes it past the 20th page in Peg-Man, and on Horvath’s suggestion, he pushes the start button again. A new, three dimensional version of the game appears, so Rhett plays that. Then a government agent comes with the $1000 for Rhett. Then Horvath says something odd, and the government agent shoots him; but Horvath now reveals himself to be a slimy extraterrestrial, and he kills the government agent. Rhett reaches the 30th level of the game, and Horvath says that his race can now use Rhett’s strategies to defeat their enemies without losing any of their own people.

Horvath leaves, and Rhett realizes that Peg is an acronym—P for pentagon, E for extraterrestrial, but what is the G for? He pushes the start button again, and hears a voice say, “Greetings. This is the Galaxy speaking. I wonder if you could help me out?”

Reprints

This story has been reprinted in Donald A. Wollheim’s The 1983 Annual World’s Best SF.

Notes

The notion of video games having an ulterior purpose was also used in the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter, in the 1981 short story "The Cyphertone", and in the 1991 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Game (TNG Episode)".